Let's talk about going to the drive-in movie theater

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Lots of Drive-In memories. There was one only a couple of miles away, and I saw a lot of films there. The first I recall seeing was Dinosaurus, a low-budget Dinosaur movie that was able to give you quality stop-motion dinosaurs by intercutting them with scenes using puppet dinosaurs. It was a pretty decent flick*, but it started raining during the film – not merely a rainstorm, but a thunderstorm, with lightning that blanked out the screen. I think we left early.

A couple of years later my father took me with a friend to see King Kong vs. Godzilla, a brand new film at the time, and in color.

The Drive-In put up an indoor building then, and a lot of the movies I saw were indoors, although they continued to run the outdoor theater, and I saw movies there, as well.

When I went to grad school, there were drive-ins I the area, but they were in decline. They were showing X-rated movies to help make ends meet. I saw Galaxina (which was R rated) at one, and went to an X-rated one just for the novelty of it (This isn’t me trying to wriggle out of the shame of seeing an X-rated movie – I really don’t care for watching them. They don’t do anything for me.).

Then I went to grad school in Utah, and found that drive-ins were still a Big Deal theater (I understand that they were in the South, as well). Salt Lake city seemed stuck in a Time Warp in many ways – kids cruised Main Street on Saturday nights, there was a Head Shop above the Art Cinema, and Drive-Ins were still popular and well-patronized. There was an octoplex there that had a central projecting booth-and-snack bar while it sent films out in eight equally angularly spaced directions. I took a date to a double feature of The Fly and Predator, and went by myself to see some other flicks that hadn’t been shown at the indoor theaters near my apartment.

Now that I’m living in Massachusetts, there are still two drive-in theaters within easy drives, and we’ve taken our daughter and her friends to movies there. We held one birthday party in the van, crowding in a stack of teenaged girls and a birtrhday cake. We’ve seen a Harry Potter film, Kung-fu Panda, Wall-E, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the CRystal Skull, and some other flicks there. The place has a nice retro feel and a sort of community spirit – in the twilight before the film starts, people pull out lawn chairs and play cards and socialize.

*As I’ve remarked before, I suspect that James Cameron saw this as a kid, and the fight between the T rex and the guy in the steam shovel probably inspired the fight between Ripley in the utility suit and the Alien Queen in Aliens.

22

My memories:

Going to the Stardusk Drive-in in Sheboygan, WI as a kid, with my parents. The playground was amazing, it had swings AND a teeter-totter! The snack bar had an overwhelming number of choices. I was excited about seeing a movie called “40 pounds of trouble” there. Then I was angry about falling asleep as the movie started, and missing it all.

Making out with my girlfriend (now wife) back in HS on a double date with another other couple in the back seat. No idea what movie we saw.

23

The move to digital kicked Drive-in’s in the nads. The only thing that could make enough light for the really big screen were BIG carbon arc lamphouses that were expensive and messy to run, not to mention who wants to play with hundreds of Amps?

They had to go to 7000 watt Xenon bulbs. Not cheap. Make quite the pop when they blow up.

24

My girlfriend and I went to the local drive-in frequently around high school days. There was a bar next to it, with a BBQ shack out back that made the most glorious ribs. We would get take-out, then eat at the theatre while waiting for the sun to go down. Much better than drive-in food, you bet.

We had a disturbing experience once, though. It was a cold night and we must have steamed up the windows a little too much. There was a knock on the car door and a manager who told us to follow him to the office, where he proceeded to accuse my girl of prostitution and performing illegal acts. This was absurd, and what business was it of his, anyway? We refused to tell him who we were, and invited him to kick us out or call the cops. I guess he could have looked up the license plate, but that wouldn’t lead him to the girl, since it was my car.

I was unconcerned about his accusations and asshole attitude – I knew this couldn’t go far, but I didn’t want him to call my girl’s father, who was a tyrant and had been known to beat his daughters on occasion. I remember asking for my money back so we could leave (I didn’t get it).

Looking back, I think this was the way the pervert manager got his jollies, by embarrassing vulnerable teenagers. A couple making out in a drive-in! Horrors! What will these kids think of next to destroy civilization?

25

It wasn’t the opulent indoor theaters that killed the drive-in. It was the VCR. A home is even more comfortable than a luxury theater.

26

My folks didn’t like drive-ins, but I did go with friend’s parents. First drive-in movie was Robin and the 7 Hoods, with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

The drive-in had a chimpanzee that lived in an enclosure below the screen.

27

I saw Star Wars at a drive-in, and Tron, and many other movies (Tora, Tora, Tora leaps to mind).

Parents could take little kids along and just let them sleep in the back seat - a nice feature.

28

Cosmic Areoplane, (the head shop, book/record store) Blue Mouse Theater, Redwood Drive-In.

(the CA was actually next door to the Blue Mouse, which showed “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” every weekend for something like 15 years running.)

29

The one I went to as a kid is still there.

I remember when they made the major technological leap from the speakers you hang on your car window to being able to tune in to the sound on your car radio.

30

I was born in '81, and the one and only movie I saw in a drive-in was Jurassic Park in the summer of '93. There was a drive-in theater about 20 miles south of us and my parents decided to take us to see that particular movie in that particular screen; I’m not sure why as it was the only time they did so.

I remember my dad didn’t want to risk running down the car battery to listen to the dialogue (it was transmitted on an FM station—no wired speakers) so we bought an ancient battery-powered ghetto blaster to place between the seats to listen to the dialogue.

That theater closed in 2000 or 2001. The screen was taken down and now the place is used by a truck driving school to park their big rigs.

31

Our town still had one in the eighties. I was in high school then and my boyfriend and I went to see I Spit On Your Grave. Nice. :slight_smile:

32

As a kid, I remember wearing pajamas and sitting the back seat. The actual drive-in was torn down decades ago. Don’t remember what I saw, other than discovering that the feature we really wanted to see was usually the second film, so we’d be too tired to stay up for it.

As a teen, I remember trying to sneak someone in. He was caught. The kicker was that he was a relative of the drive-in owner, so he could get a free admission any time he wanted.

There were still a few operating around here when I became a parent, and we would go as a family. Most memorable was the time I had been working for eight days straight and we went to one. I couldn’t stay up past the first film.

The big feature for us was the food. The snack bar had some pretty good options. There are still three operating in our area these days, but we haven’t gon since my daughter moved out.

33

Heh. Memories.

Saw ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’ with Mom and Dad. Staring Rock Hudson and Angie Dickenson. They thought it would be a ‘Who dun it mystery’. Was closer to soft core porn. Yeah, we where all quite uncomfortable.

And I had always wanted a dirt bike as a kid. Had mini bikes but needed something bigger. A motorcycle movie came out and I figured if I could only get my Dad to see it and see how great motorcycles where I’d have one next weekend. We saw Easy Rider. It did not work out as planned.

Another time, my best bud and I went camping on a whim. Did that a lot, always ready to go. Camp site set up by 2pm and ended up bored. Decided to break camp drive back into town and go to the drive in. ‘Airplane!’ Now that was great.

34

Went to the drive-ins a lot in high school. Cheap to get in, dark and a place to make out without ushers cramping your moves. A buddy used to own an old Rambler that had front seats that dropped back level with the rear seats. Turned the car into a queen-sized bed. Perfect drive-in car!

35

The entrance was next door. Although the Cosmic Aeroplane had a downstairs used-book section, I think it was also partially over the Blue Mouse.

They only showed Rocky Horror Picture Show on Fridays at midnight*, but they showed it for a long time. The responses in SLC were different from those elsewhere in the country (“Not the Family Home Evening Book!” when The Criminologist pulls out the case file).

I haven’t been back in years, but apparently they’re both gone, now. I still miss them.

And, yeah, the Redwood.

*The Blue Mouse had a tiny marquee, so all they could fit on it about the midnight show was “Rocky”. When first saw it I wondered why they were showing Sylvester Stallone’s film at midnight.
The Blue Mouse also showed Harold and Maude every three months, at the end of their quarterly cycle. They also showed the silent film Trapped by the Mormons regularly. I never did get to see the stop-motion triumph attack of the Giant Brine Shrimp there. I found a film by that name on YouTube, but I’m not sure if it’s the same film. Really.

36

This thread is so much fun to read! Makes me want to put on my jammies and go sit in my car with popcorn and stream something on my kindle. :smiley:

OMG! Maybe we are related! I always wanted a sibling. Does your screen name indicate a connection to Japan? We were stationed in Japan when I was a baby, so maybe… :wink:

Like most kids of our generation, I suffered the Bambi trauma. Also the Dumbo trauma (when his mom is locked up and hangs her trunk out through the bars and sings to him… :frowning: ).

Anything that required engaging with life was too much trouble and too costly for my parents. I didn’t have a birthday party until I threw one for myself when I turned 21. Sigh. The worst thing is that I fear I’m turning into my parents, but that’s another thread.

37

When I was a little kid, in the early '70s, we’d go to the drive-in on occcasion – as several others here have posted, my parents would put my sister and me in our pajamas, and we’d fall asleep during the main feature.

The one film that I distinctly remember them going to see was A New Leaf (a 1971 comedy with Walter Matthau and Elaine May); I remember watching a Pink Panther short before the film, and the cool General Cinemas intro that ran in between the features.

My family stopped going to the drive-in not too long after that (probably because my parents could no longer count on my sister and me to fall asleep). The last time that I was at a drive-in was the summer of '82 – I was a teenager, and I went with a couple of friends to see a couple of cheesy B movies, one of which was a sexed-up version of Alien called Inseminoid. :smiley:

38

In the summer of 1982 I was living in Binghamton NY and watching a lot of movies. I went to go see John Carpenter’s The Thing (which I sat through twice) and Tobe Hooper’s Funhouse at the Vestal Drive-In in Vestal, NY*. I also saw a re-run of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Gong Show Movie at another drive-in. I sat on the hood of my car through that one.
*Vestal N.Y. was the nearby small town with the drive-in theater. I always thought that the name of their sports teams ought to be The Vestal Virgins.

39

There was one in Anchorage when I was a kid. It was called “The Billiken Drive-in” and it was way out in east Anchorage. Went there a lot once I got my license. It showed mostly ‘B’ movies. Snuck in some friends in the trunk one time and didn’t get caught, and went there for a movie instead of going to the Senior Prom. It’s long gone now, and an 8-plex cinema went up in its place. I also took two of my kids to a drive-in in California in the early 70s. My eldest still remembers it.

Here in Portland, they do a drive-in during the summer with an inflatable screen. It doesn’t work very well, as they broadcast the sound over an AM frequency. Problem is, it’s poor equipment and you can’t really hear the dialog. There is also a series of free outdoor movies at one of the downtown squares.

40

Pretty Maids All in a Row was written and produced by an obscure guy named Gene Roddenberry in 1971.
Note that this was two years after Star Trek.

I’ve only seen parts of it, but what I’ve seen gibes with your description.

Apparently it lost money, which forced Rodenberry to go on the college lecture circuit (where I attended one of his lectures). He then went on to try another TV franchise, with three variations on a future earth , starting with Genesis II. That gave us Mariette Hartley with two belly buttons, which made it all worthwhile.